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Thank you for that beautiful number that reminds us of the coming of Emmanuel.

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O come, O come, Emmanuel.

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I have a riddle for you this morning.

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This thing, all things devours.

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Birds, beasts, trees, flowers, gnaws iron, bites steel, grinds hard stones to meal,

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slays kings, ruins town, and beats high mountains down.

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What is it?

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Exactly, time.

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Some of you know that as Gollum's last riddle from The Hobbit.

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Time is one thing that you and I share with all the rest of humanity.

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We are creatures locked in time.

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We walk step by step with our generation, with a past that we cannot change,

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the present that we call now, that we can hold only for an instant at a time,

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and a future that we cannot predict.

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Although Yogi Berra, the famous 20th century philosopher about life said,

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it's tough to make predictions, especially about the future, and he is correct.

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But you know, God is not that way because God is not time limited.

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God unveils for us some things about the future that he wants us to know.

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And God can confidently tell us these things because he's the one

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who has planned them and secured them.

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We do well to ponder all that God says, including those things about the last days,

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which we have been studying in this brief series.

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Today I want to talk about what we should expect in the last days.

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George Burns, who was another philosopher of the 20th century,

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when he was 87 years old, and of course he lived to be 100,

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but at 87 he said, I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.

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May I say to you, that's exactly where you're going to spend the rest of your life too, in the future.

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So let's see what God has to say about it.

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We're going to open our Bibles first to 1 John chapter 2 and verse 18.

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1 John chapter 2 and verse 18.

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Here the apostle says, Dear children, this is the last hour.

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Now that is John's phrase that is equivalent to the last days.

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He calls it the last hour.

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By calling it the last hour, he's saying that it is coming at the culmination of things,

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that there's really not anything that follows this that God has talked to him about.

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It's the last period of time.

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It's what the Old Testament has pointed toward.

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And he says that it's urgent.

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The word last carries with it the idea of urgency.

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This is the last hour.

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And as you've heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come.

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This is how we know it is the last hour.

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They went out from us, that is these Antichrists.

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They went out from us.

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But they did not really belong to us.

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For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us.

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But their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

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These are strange phrases, aren't they?

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But they tie together with what we see in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

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And I invite you to turn over there as well.

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2 Thessalonians chapter 2, where the Apostle Paul says, Concerning the coming of our Lord

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Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you brothers not to become easily

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unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying

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that the day of the Lord has already come.

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Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion,

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the falling away, or the word literally is the apostasy, the apostasia occurs and then

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the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

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He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped

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so that he sets himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself to be God.

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Knowing what the last days hold for the world equips us with understanding for the times

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and hope for the future.

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I want to say to you that we need both of those things.

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We need an understanding of the times that we are living in and we need a hope for the

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future.

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And so my goal in this series about the last days is to give both of those things to you.

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I believe it is critical to know what God says about these things.

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From what the Apostle Paul indicates in his letters in the New Testament, whenever he

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would go to a city and there started church, among the things he talked to them about was

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the doctrine of the last days.

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And that's the reason he was writing to the Thessalonians because he had taught them these

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things and then someone had come along and confused them.

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And so he writes to remind them what he had said when he was with them.

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And I want you to know that he was only there for a period of two to three weeks.

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And so important were the doctrines of the last days in Paul's mind that he spent part

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of his time in those two to three weeks instructing them in these very things.

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God gives us information for a reason and we should never overlook what God reveals

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to us.

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We should never look down upon it.

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Even though some of the details we might debate among ourselves, nonetheless we should study

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these things.

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And so what are we to expect in the last days?

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If you'll pull your outline out, we're going to follow through that very quickly.

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I've given you the first letter of a number of different words that will lead us through

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the message this morning.

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We're going to be looking at this truth from about 30,000 feet and we're going to be going

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about 450 miles an hour.

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Each one of these topics could be a whole message or maybe even a whole series of messages.

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But today's purpose is to give us an overview as we think about what to expect in the last

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days.

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The first thing that we should expect is this, the apostasy.

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The apostasy.

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We should expect an active rebellion against God and truth.

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I am talking about within the professing church.

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Not just the world, but within the sphere that we might call Christendom.

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There will be people who will seem to be among us, but who will leave us and go out.

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As John says, because they never really belonged to us.

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There are those that are called apostates.

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They renounce the faith that they once claimed to hold.

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I have a statement on the screen that I want you to take a look at with me regarding apostasy.

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Apostasy means to fall away from the truth.

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Therefore an apostate is someone who has once believed and then rejected the truth of God.

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Apostasy is a rebellion against God because it is a rebellion against truth.

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Now throughout this entire period of time that might be called the last days, the last

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two thousand years, there have been apostates and apostasy.

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It was present in the first century.

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What the Bible seems to indicate that is in the last days of the last days as we draw

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toward the culmination of this period of time, there will come what is called the apostasy.

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And there will be this very active rebellion against the God of heaven and against the

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truth of His word.

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Now apostasy has happened in the past such as with Cain when he turned against God and

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rebelled against him and went out and established his own civilization.

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Apostasy has happened in ancient Israel as the people of God who claimed to worship the

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God who delivered them from Egypt would then go out and create a golden calf and worship

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the calf as God.

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But here we're talking about something that is beyond all of that.

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It is the world turning against God in active rebellion.

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Ryrie says that it is an aggressive and climactic revolt by religious Christendom against biblical

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Christianity and this apostasy will turn to the lie and begin to promote it.

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The lie that there is no God and that man controls his own destiny or that man is his

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own God.

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And this deception will lead many astray in the name of Christianity.

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Some of you remarked a few weeks ago when there was an ad that appeared in one of our

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papers from some professing churches in our area that were clearly an active rebellion

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against what God says in His word.

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That should not shock us.

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That is simply one of the signs of what the Bible calls apostasy, of falling away from

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the truth.

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And the Bible says that this signals that we are in fact in the last days.

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And it opens the door to a demon energized departure of human culture from any moorings

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to the truth of God.

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That is the apostasy and we are told that we should expect this to happen.

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Now it will apparently open the door to the second thing I want to talk about.

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We should also expect the anti-Christ.

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That is, we should expect a person to incarnate the apostasy.

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Just as Jesus Christ incarnates the truth of God, anti-Christ will incarnate the lie.

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He will incarnate this rebellion against the God of heaven and His truth.

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The apostasy seems to be necessary to prepare the way for this person called the anti-Christ.

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He is predicted in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

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For example, in the Old Testament, in Daniel chapter 7, he is called the little horn.

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The little horn who will arise from the final world empire.

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And he will speak against the most high and oppress the saints, the people of God in that

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day.

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And he will try to change the set times and the laws.

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He will seek to throw off every restraint that there is that God has given to human

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culture.

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He is further called in Daniel chapter 9, the ruler that will come.

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Who will make a treaty with the Jewish nation for a period of seven years.

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And then in the middle of that seven year period will turn against the Jews and become

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their most ferocious persecutor.

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The ruler that will come.

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In the New Testament, he is described as we saw in 2 Thessalonians, the man of lawlessness.

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The lawless one.

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He will call himself God and he will even do counterfeit miracles by the power of Satan

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in order to attract people to come and worship him as the Messiah.

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In Revelation 13, he is called by yet another name, the beast.

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He is the beast who rises out of the sea of Gentile world powers as what I think is a

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European based dictator.

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Who will use a false religious system, probably apostate Christendom, to create his own power

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base.

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This is the antichrist that we are to expect.

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Now the epistles of John give us an interesting overview of this whole idea.

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In the first place, John says that antichrists have been around for this whole period of

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time, the last 2,000 years.

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He says they are characterized this way.

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They deny that Jesus is the Messiah.

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They deny that Jesus is the son of the Father, his unique relationship with the Father.

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And they deny that he is God who has come in human flesh.

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He says those who profess those kinds of things are antichrists.

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He also talks about antichristism, which is the teaching of antichrist.

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And he says that it is the work of demonic spirits that have been sent out into the world.

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That is John 4.3.

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Furthermore he says that even though there have been many antichrists throughout this

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age, the antichrist is still coming.

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And it is the sign of the last hour.

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Now even though we expect antichrists to come, I am not convinced that we will see him ourselves

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because of what I am going to talk about next.

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But we may.

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Or at least we may know pretty sure who it is going to be.

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The encouragement that you and I have regarding antichrists is this.

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I think every place that he has mentioned in the Bible, it also speaks of his certain

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judgment.

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He will appear to be very, very successful for a period of time.

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And when his time is up, he is going to be slapped down with a final judgment from God.

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He will not succeed in the end.

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But thinking about the antichrist and the timing of his coming brings me to the third

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thing that we are to expect.

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And that is we are to expect the catching away.

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The catching away.

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Paul uses this term in 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 13 through 18, which is the most clear reference

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in the New Testament to the event that I want to talk about now.

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The catching away of the church.

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You and I are to expect the Savior to come from heaven.

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We are to expect that.

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It is what is called by Paul elsewhere the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of

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the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

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And as he describes the blessed hope, this catching away event in 1 Thessalonians 4,

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he seems to describe four movements that take place.

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The first movement is Jesus himself descends from heaven.

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In that sphere, that realm, that dimension that is called heaven, Jesus steps through

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whatever blinds us from seeing into that dimension into our visible universe, our visible atmosphere

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of the world, where the clouds are.

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He will become visible there as he descends from heaven, not to the earth, but into the

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atmosphere of the world, movement number one.

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Movement number two that is described in that text is that the dead in Christ will rise

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first.

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That is those who have died as believers in Jesus Christ from 2000 years ago all the way

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up until that moment, those who have died in Christ will rise first.

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Now he says that Jesus is going to bring back with him from heaven their souls.

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And as they come back into this dimension, their bodies, wherever they rest or have decayed

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through the centuries, will be miraculously resurrected, brought back together as immortal

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bodies that cannot die.

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And somewhere between there and the grave from where they are raised, their soul and

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body are reunited forever.

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Now the reason he says that they rise first is because somebody had come to the church

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and said, well, these who have died already in these years since you were here Paul, those

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who have died are lost.

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I mean they are just going to miss out on the Lord's coming.

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That's what he meant.

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And Paul says, oh no, not at all.

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In fact, they have priority.

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They get to go first.

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That's movement number two.

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Movement number three.

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Those who are alive and remain on that day, they have not died as believers in Christ,

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but they believe in Jesus.

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We who are alive, says Paul, will be caught up together with them.

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And so as those who are dead in Christ are raised up and they're moving up toward Jesus,

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we who are alive will have our bodies changed immediately without going through death.

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We will be made like Jesus.

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Our bodies made immortal.

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And we will be caught up also into the air.

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With them.

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Then movement number four is that we come together with the Lord and we move with the

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Lord back into the heavenly realm away from the earth.

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You say that sounds fantastic.

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That sounds like science fiction.

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Well, it is not fiction at all.

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It is exactly what the Bible describes will happen and we're to expect it.

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It's called the catching away of the church.

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That will usher in a wonderful day.

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H.L. Turner was a man who lived in another century.

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As far as I know, he only wrote one hymn, at least one that I can find, but it's one

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that we used to sing on occasion that captures this moment.

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It says, it may be at morn, when the day is awaking, when sunlight through darkness and

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shadow is breaking, that Jesus will come in the fullness of glory to receive from the

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world his own.

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It may be at midday.

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It may be at twilight.

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It may be perchance at the blackness of midnight will burst into light in the blaze of his

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glory when Jesus receives his own.

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O joy, O delight, should we go without dying.

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No sickness, no sadness, no dread, no crying, caught up through the clouds with our Lord

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into glory when Jesus receives his own.

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Many poets have tried to capture this thought, but none can do it better than what the word

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of God simply tells us that we are to expect.

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We're also to expect something that follows that, and that is what is called in the Bible

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the tribulation.

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We are to expect to receive, or expect rather, rebellion to receive divine justice.

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The tribulation is termed the great day of the wrath of God and the Lamb.

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But Jesus says that throughout this age there will be tribulation that you and I will experience.

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That is the suffering and the affliction that comes to us because we belong to Christ.

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We're to expect that too.

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That's not what I'm talking about.

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The Bible says that at the end of the days, in the last hour, the last days, there will

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come the tribulation.

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It is also called the great tribulation.

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In the Old Testament the same period of time is called the time of Jacob's trouble.

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Jacob referring there to the people of Israel.

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It will be a time when the people of Israel will undergo, I am sorry to say, the greatest

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persecution that they have ever known.

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The tribulation that you and I know during this time is tribulation that comes from the

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hands of a hate-filled world.

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They hate us because they hate Christ.

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But the tribulation I'm talking about now is the tribulation that comes upon the world

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because God sends it.

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It is the day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb.

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Many people, including myself, see the tribulation as the fulfillment of the final period of

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seven years that Daniel prophesied in Daniel chapter 9.

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I have a brief summation of that on the screen.

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It is a period that Daniel is told about of 490 years that is foretold for his people.

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Who are his people?

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The Jews.

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The clock on the 490 years begins to tick when the degree goes forward to rebuild Jerusalem.

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This was in the days before Jesus' birth when Jerusalem lay in ruins.

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That would start the clock.

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God said, and the 490 years would be fulfilled with the anointing of the Holy One as the

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righteous King and He would bring in a righteous and peaceful kingdom.

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But the time is divided up, the 490 years.

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And it says after 483 years, the Messiah, the anointed one, would be cut off, not for

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his own sins.

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And it's referring to the crucifixion.

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And so you can actually count this out, and there are those who have done it, count out

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the days when they think the crucifixion was backwards 483 years to when the decree to

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rebuild Jerusalem was given.

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And it can fit.

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But the point that I want to make is that when Jesus died, when the Messiah was cut

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off, as Daniel says, something happened Daniel did not see, he was not told about.

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And that is that the clock stopped on the 490 years.

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It stopped.

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Leaving seven years yet to be fulfilled.

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And if you read what Daniel says about those last seven years and compare them to the New

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Testament, you find they overlay perfectly with the tribulation period.

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That's why I believe the tribulation period will in fact last seven years.

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And it is during that period that Antichrist is very, very active.

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From God's viewpoint, the time of the tribulation is a time of his judgment on the earth.

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From Satan's viewpoint, it is a time when he believes he will finally overthrow Christ

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and claim the throne.

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And that's why he raises up his Antichrist.

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There are a series of judgments that are poured out upon the world, each of them becoming

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increasingly severe.

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So severe in fact that the book of Revelation indicates that more than half of the population

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of the earth will die during those seven years.

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From wars, from famine, from the direct plagues of God, lots of different causes.

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More than half of the population.

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You say, wow, that's a lot to look forward to.

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Well, there are those who believe the church will be present during the tribulation time.

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And I have no problem believing that Christ is able to keep his people secure during that

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time if that's what he chooses to do.

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But I believe there is strong indication in the New Testament that the catching away of

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the church occurs before the tribulation actually kicks off.

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And that we will not even be here for this period of time.

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Now the tribulation culminates with a particular battle, and most of you have heard of that

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battle.

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It's the battle of what?

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Armageddon.

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When the armies of the Antichrist will be gathered and the focus will be Israel and

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Jerusalem, and just when those forces think they have about won the battle, the heavens

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open up and Jesus Christ returns and destroys the armies of the Antichrist.

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And that brings us to the next thing we're to expect, and that is the return.

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The return, we're to expect the culmination of the last days.

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Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 24, for as lightning comes from the east and is

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visible even in the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

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He says immediately after the distress or the tribulation of those days, and he summarizes

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those days by saying the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars

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will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

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These are cosmic terms describing the upheaval of things in the tribulation period as God's

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judgment is poured out upon the earth.

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Jesus goes on to say at that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and

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all the nations of the earth will mourn.

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They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

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This is the return of Jesus Christ.

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This time not merely back into the atmosphere of the world, but back to the earth itself

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as he leads his angelic and his army of the redeemed to conquer the forces of the Antichrist.

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It goes on to say in Matthew, and he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and

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they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.

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Now some look at that and say, oh well there's the rapture and it occurs now.

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No, it's not talking here about the rapture.

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Jesus never talked about the rapture.

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That was something that Paul revealed.

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Jesus is here using similar language though to describe the gathering of believers who've

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lived during the tribulation time and who've lived through it.

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They've not been martyred.

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They're going to be gathered together and brought to him as the king.

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And so that's the return.

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Immediately after that is going to come the next thing that we expect in the last days

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and that is the judgment of the nations.

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We are to expect the division of the righteous and the unrighteous at this point in time.

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Those who are remaining alive after the tribulation period, though many, many, many, millions will

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die.

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Those who are remaining alive will be gathered together for what's called the judgment of

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the nations that Jesus describes in Matthew 25.

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All will be gathered together.

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Those who believe and those who do not believe.

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And Jesus will be established as the judge between the two.

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And here's what he says.

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It's what Jesus says about this judgment.

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The king himself will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father,

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take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

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And so here are those who believed, who are saved.

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He says, you now will inherit the kingdom with me.

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And then he says to those on his left, depart from me you who are cursed into the eternal

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fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

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And so those who have lived through the tribulation but have rejected Christ and have not been

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killed in the battle of the Armageddon will now be killed.

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And their souls will be cast into the fire awaiting yet their final judgment that will

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come at a future point.

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So what happens here is that at this time there is the division of the righteous and

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the unrighteous so that those who come into the kingdom are only the righteous.

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And it will include those who have been resurrected in immortal bodies, it will include the church,

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and it will include those who have lived through the tribulation and who are in their natural

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bodies.

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And they will continue to have children and will repopulate the earth during what's called

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the kingdom.

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And that brings me to the final point and that is the kingdom.

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We are to expect the kingdom, the literal fulfillment of God's promises.

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Jesus talks often about His kingdom.

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Just before He goes back to heaven His disciples say, Jesus are you now at this time going

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to restore the kingdom?

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They were thinking primarily of a physical kingdom, Israel's kingdom.

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Jesus doesn't say, oh no, you've got it all wrong, there's not going to be a kingdom.

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He doesn't say that.

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He says it's not for you to know the times or the seasons.

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He says but you will receive the Holy Spirit because I've got work for you to do.

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Don't be worried about the timing of the kingdom.

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Be concerned about the work that I'm calling you to do in Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost

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parts of the earth.

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That's your job.

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Jesus talked about His kingdom.

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God is going to keep His promise to Abraham in His covenant to give Abraham's descendants

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the land that God promised them.

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God is going to keep His promise to David that David's son would reign forever, that

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David's descendant would have a kingdom that would be worldwide and would be a period of

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peace and prosperity and righteousness.

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And that all the nations of the earth would bring worship to Jerusalem.

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That is going to be fulfilled.

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The Old Testament is rich with promises to restore Israel to its land and to regather

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the Jewish people under a righteous king.

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There's only one place that I know of in the Scriptures that give us an indication of the

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length of this kingdom.

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And that's in the New Testament in Revelation chapter 20 where John says, I saw thrones

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on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.

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And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus

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and because of the word of God.

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He's thinking here of the saints who have been martyred in the tribulation period.

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They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads

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or their hands.

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They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

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The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.

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This is the first resurrection.

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Blessed and holy are those who have part of the first resurrection.

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The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ

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and will reign with him for a thousand years.

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So three times in these verses that period of a thousand years is mentioned.

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Now it may mean something other than a thousand years, but I prefer to understand the Bible

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literally wherever we can.

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And it seems here that a period of a thousand years is intended for the kingdom over which

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Jesus will reign.

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Now I want to admit that there are people who take varying positions on the things we've

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talked about, but I want to say again we should never overlook these things because of those

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differences.

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God has given us this truth so that we might know.

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And I want to talk about in closing the so what question.

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It seems like a cynical question, doesn't it, to say well so what when God has spoken?

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And yet it is an important question.

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What is the benefit of studying these kinds of things?

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Well in the first place let me say that to be warned brings readiness.

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To be warned about the things that are going to come to pass in the last time makes us

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ready for them so that we are not surprised by suffering, persecution, or even the collapse

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of culture as we know it.

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We should not even be surprised at apostasy taking place in the professing church or perhaps

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even in seeing the rise of a very powerful political figure who will begin to unite the

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world under him.

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These things should make us ready.

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Jesus said therefore keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

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So you also must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not

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expect him.

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And so we study these things with the benefit to our lives.

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They make us ready and watchful.

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We do not want to fall asleep.

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Especially in the generation that we are living in.

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In times like these we need to be wide awake observing things that are taking place in

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our culture, in our world, and be ready for the coming of Christ and all of those things

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that we may see.

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And I want to say this that if you are not a follower of Jesus Christ I have good news

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and I have bad news for you.

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The good news is that today is still the day of salvation.

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That you can still get on the right side of this whole equation we are talking about.

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That you can still come to faith in Jesus Christ and be among his redeemed for whom

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00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:56,320
he will come one day.

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But the bad news is this.

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The 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 indicates that if you know that you should receive Christ

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and you do not do it, you delay in doing it.

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That when Christ comes after that you will not be able to believe.

464
00:40:20,780 --> 00:40:27,600
Your day of opportunity will be done and you will be turned to follow the lie as the judgment

465
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:31,080
of God.

466
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:36,840
That is why it is so very serious to know the gospel of Jesus Christ but not to act

467
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:39,600
upon it.

468
00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:43,820
It places your soul in jeopardy.

469
00:40:43,820 --> 00:40:47,440
The good news is what I urge you to follow today.

470
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:52,760
That is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you too will be saved.

471
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:59,600
Not only from your sins but from those dreadful things that are coming upon the earth in the

472
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:01,520
future.

473
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,400
Be ready.

474
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:08,480
To be informed about these things brings comfort.

475
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:15,440
The apostle writes about the catching away of the church and he says now comfort one

476
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:19,200
another with these words.

477
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:26,080
When you talk about the last days, there is a comfort that is present here for the people

478
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:35,280
of God because we face a lot of loss in this life.

479
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:40,520
Paul says if Christ is not risen from the dead, we who believe on Christ in this world

480
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:45,400
are the most miserable of all people.

481
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:49,120
But he is raised from the dead and so we are not.

482
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:51,560
We face a lot of loss.

483
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:53,240
Some of you are facing loss today.

484
00:41:53,240 --> 00:42:00,840
Some of you are facing the loss of a loved one or the loss of a marriage.

485
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:04,880
Perhaps the loss of health or the loss of your financial well-being that you have been

486
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:05,880
planning on.

487
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:10,880
The loss of a home.

488
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:15,560
There is comfort in knowing that God has things under control.

489
00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:20,120
And my friend, if God has the last days under control, don't you think he has your life

490
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:21,120
under control?

491
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:23,840
I mean you fit into this whole picture.

492
00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:25,960
You understand that?

493
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:27,600
You do fit into it.

494
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:33,160
God has a place for you in it and he is going to take care of you.

495
00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:39,680
Just as he has taken care of all of these events that will surely come to pass.

496
00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:40,680
That brings comfort to us.

497
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:45,760
We know that we are in the hands of God in times like these.

498
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:49,520
Finally, to be assured about these things brings hope.

499
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:56,440
And I don't mean just hope in a sentimental kind of way, which we all need.

500
00:42:56,440 --> 00:43:04,480
But I am talking about the assurance that this kind of understanding brings to us.

501
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:11,160
To know that the present troubles that we are passing through are not all that there

502
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:12,160
is.

503
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:16,440
To know beyond the shadow of a doubt that these things are coming to pass brings everything

504
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:20,920
else into perspective in our lives.

505
00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:26,240
We should never just view the last days as only trouble and fearful and as a depressing

506
00:43:26,240 --> 00:43:27,640
prospect.

507
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:28,800
We miss it.

508
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:31,840
We miss it if that is how we see it.

509
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:34,640
God wants us to have hope in the midst of it.

510
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:38,920
Have you ever been seasick?

511
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:43,160
I never have thankfully because of a little patch I put behind my ear whenever I get out

512
00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:44,960
on a boat in the ocean.

513
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:47,400
But I pity people who have.

514
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:48,400
I have seen them.

515
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:57,520
I have seen them green with heads down on the table praying to die.

516
00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:05,480
And I am told that if you really want to conquer what you have to do is to get out and find

517
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:08,120
the horizon that is stable.

518
00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:09,840
Is that right?

519
00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:15,160
You have to look beyond the rolling waves and find the horizon.

520
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:20,880
My friend in these times we need to look beyond the things that are rolling around us and

521
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:22,840
see what is coming.

522
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:28,200
And when we do that it will give us perspective on this world.

523
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:31,520
It will give us hope.

524
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:32,520
Will we suffer?

525
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:33,520
Well maybe.

526
00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:40,640
Paul says if we are children then we are heirs.

527
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:42,800
Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

528
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:48,160
If indeed we share in His sufferings an order that we may also share in His glory.

529
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:55,240
I consider that our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the what?

530
00:44:55,240 --> 00:44:58,400
The glory that will be revealed in us.

531
00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:03,320
He says look beyond now and see what is coming.

532
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:07,800
See the glory that is coming for the people of God.

533
00:45:07,800 --> 00:45:14,000
Folks as we think about the last days what I want us to go away saying is this.

534
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:17,880
I have a blessed hope.

535
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:19,480
Would you say that with me?

536
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:21,880
I have a blessed hope.

537
00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:24,360
Would you say amen to that?

538
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:26,680
It is a blessed hope.

539
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:27,840
Would you pray with me?

540
00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:33,020
Father, I want to pray this morning first of all for any friend who is here that has

541
00:45:33,020 --> 00:45:39,360
not made that step of faith and trusted Jesus Christ.

542
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:41,400
Who understands that Christ died for them.

543
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:44,520
Who knows that Christ rose from the dead.

544
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:48,920
Who knows that Christ is the way but has not yet taken that personal step.

545
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:56,680
Father, my prayer is that today that friend would make that step of faith and call upon

546
00:45:56,680 --> 00:45:59,520
the name of the Lord.

547
00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:06,080
Father, I also pray for all of us who have made that step of faith.

548
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:12,840
Today the hope of Jesus' return will fill our hearts.

549
00:46:12,840 --> 00:46:17,120
And we will find comfort in that perspective for life.

550
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:25,160
And we will find our lives having meaning and purpose and understanding because we know

551
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:26,880
what you are about in the world.

552
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:34,980
Will God keep us ready and watchful for the coming of Christ in times like these.

553
00:46:34,980 --> 00:46:35,980
Thank you in Jesus' name.

554
00:46:35,980 --> 00:46:42,980
Amen.